Infrastructure plan for 4,000 homes in west Harrogate ‘a missed opportunity’

A long-awaited plan to solve how the west of Harrogate’s roads, schools, and health services will cope with 4,000 extra homes has been branded a “missed opportunity”.

The comments have come from The Western Arc Coordination Group and Zero Carbon Harrogate, which had a meeting with council officers on Thursday to discuss  a draft version of the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan.

The Western Arc Coordination Group includes Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Association (Hapara), Duchy Residents’ Association, Hampsthwaite Action Group, North Rigton Parish Council and Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council.

Proposed housing schemes in the area include the 1,000-home Windmill Farm development on Otley Road and 560 homes at Blue Coat Wood. The plan was written with input from developers, including Homes England and Gladman Developments.

It includes proposals for two new primary schools and a possible new GP surgery — which have been previously announced. The plan has yet to be released to the general public.

‘Almost as if no problems exist’

Rene Dziabas, chair of Hapara, told the Stray Ferret the plan “totally avoids the heart of the problem”.

At over 100 pages long, he said it lacked a summary at the start clearly explaining its purpose to address the area’s current “weak infrastructure”, such as roads.

He said:

“The purpose of this document is not made clear and totally avoids the heart of the problem in that an urban expansion is being proposed in a part of Harrogate with a weak infrastructure.

“There is no attempt at clearly stating what the problems are, and no attempt at associated analysis. HAPARA, as well as Pannal and Burn Bridge, North Rigton and Beckwithshaw Parish councils have been arguing this case for many years and there is no recognition within this document of their concerns. It is almost as if no problems exist. There needs to be a far clearer `entire West of Harrogate` context for this report.”

Mr Dziabas said that the WACG was disappointed the plan does not address how key arteries into the town, such as Otley Road, as well as country lanes around Pannal, Beckwithshaw and North Rigton, will cope with the inevitable increase in traffic.

Over 1,000 homes are set to be built on both sides of this section of Otley Road.

Mr Dziabas added:

“[Over the last eight years] there has been no improvement to the road system, many of which are country lanes, no real betterment of public transport, and little has happened on the active travel front which will only ever be a very small part of any overall solution”.

He added there needed to be “far more” in the plan about improvements to bus services.

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Secondary school places

The Stray Ferret reported this month that nearly 700 secondary school places will be needed in Harrogate and Knaresborough by 2025/26 to keep up with demand caused by new housing.

Mr Dziabas said the new homes would put further pressure on Harrogate Grammar School and Rossett School in particular.

He said:

“Whilst primary schools are covered in this document, little mention is made of secondary school places. The west of Harrogate has two busy secondary schools, and both are at or above capacity.”

Car culture

Jemima Parker, chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret the plan contained a “major omission” around energy for new homes, with no mention of onsite renewable energy, solar panels, small wind turbines or ground source heat pumps.

With spiralling energy costs, Ms Parker said greener homes would make people more resilient to the volatile market.

She said:

“There are pages and pages about design, but not a single mention of building design for energy-efficient homes, like passive houses. This ignores the council’s own planning policy guidance as set out in the Local Plan. We want residents’ homes to be built to zero-carbon standards now, not needing to be retrofitted later, and for low-carbon construction materials to be used.”

A passive house on Bogs Lane in Harrogate

Ms Parker believes the plan focuses too heavily on car-friendly developments.

“We are saddened to see that the plan still has a car culture, reliant on private ownership rather than shared transport and active travel. Given the location on the West of Harrogate we would like to see an imaginative ‘work from home’ settlement, picking up on the 15-minute neighbourhoods seen in other UK towns with plenty of access to car clubs.

“Overall it is disappointing the west of Harrogate may miss out on the opportunity to be designed appropriately both to reduce its carbon footprint and to be resilient to our changing climate.”

Council’s response

The draft plan is still to be ratified by the council.

A council spokesperson said:

“The development of west Harrogate provides an exciting opportunity to deliver quality place-making, a wide-range of private and affordable homes to meet the current housing demand, while also ensuring we have the necessary infrastructure to support these future communities.

“Once approved, the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan will create clear goals and objectives by identifying what infrastructure is required. For example, first-class community facilities, school provision, green infrastructure and sustainable travel opportunities.

“A number of suggestions have already helped shaped the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan and I’d like to thank those local residents groups and parish councils for their valuable feedback.”

Zero Carbon Harrogate receives £125,000 to make buildings more energy efficient

Environmental charity Zero Carbon Harrogate has received a grant of £125,422 to make buildings more energy efficient.

The organisation, which promotes a low carbon sustainable economy in the Harrogate district, was awarded the funding this week from energy regulator Ofgem‘s energy redress scheme.

The scheme, which collects money volunteered by energy companies who may have breached Ofgem rules, has awarded over £34 million to nearly 200 organisations since 2018.

In this latest funding round, Ofgem said it focused on projects that would relieve the ongoing energy crisis, choosing “new initiatives that support vulnerable households with energy bills and projects that will help homes reduce their long-term household carbon emissions”.

Zero Carbon Harrogate’s award will go towards its retrofit training and engagement programme, which aims to reduce the climate impact from domestic energy use in the Harrogate district by accelerating the delivery of local retrofit services.

It will improve the accessibility of energy efficiency and renewable energy services for local households by addressing issues with both supply and demand for retrofit services.

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In a statement on Twitter, Zero Carbon Harrogate said:

“We are absolutely delighted to secure this funding and we’re really excited to deliver our retrofit project to the Harrogate district.”

How retrofitting helps buildings 

Zero Carbon Harrogate has previously run a retrofit awareness event in collaboration with Harrogate College and subsidised the college’s Foundations of Eco-Retrofit course.

Buildings make up 17% of UK emissions, and retrofitting homes by adding insulation, reducing draughts, and installing heat pumps can reduce energy consumption by up to 80%.

Graham Ayling, senior project manager for the energy redress scheme, said:

“The latest round of grant funding comes at a crucial time, with UK households facing exceptional rises in energy costs, alongside the ongoing climate emergency.

“National and regional charities have a key role on the frontline, particularly in supporting those most at risk from high energy prices and in ensuring that the transition to zero carbon energy happens quickly, sustainably and leaves no-one behind. These funds will support more charities to do just that.”

Talks today about 4,000 new homes in west Harrogate

Harrogate Borough Council officers will meet residents groups and parish councils today to discuss the long awaited West of Harrogate Parameters Plan.

The plan describes the infrastructure requirements associated with up to 4,000 new homes due to be built in the western arc of Harrogate.

A draft version of the delayed plan has now been published and circulated by the council to groups including Harlow & Pannal Ash Residents Association, North Rigton Parish Council, Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council and Zero Carbon Harrogate. The Stray Ferret has also been sent the document.

At over 100 pages long, the document paints a broad brush vision of how the area will be transformed by new housing.

It includes proposals for two new primary schools and a possible new GP surgery — which have been previously announced.

Howard West, chair of Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council, told the Stray Ferret the plan lacked detail on addressing traffic and congestion.

He added:

“The parameters plan draft is in nice developer-speak but there’s no answer to the problems arising from building 4,000 homes around Harrogate’s western arc.”

Hapara and Zero Carbon Harrogate both said they would comment on the plan after today’s meeting.

Hapara previously said it was unhappy about the level of consultation offered to residents by the council during the process.

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Beset by delays

The council initially said the parameters plan would be published in October 2020. But it was delayed until March 2021, then September 2021.

The draft plan is still to be ratified by the council.

A council spokesperson said:

“The development of west Harrogate provides an exciting opportunity to deliver quality place-making, a wide-range of private and affordable homes to meet the current housing demand, while also ensuring we have the necessary infrastructure to support these future communities.

“Once approved, the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan will create clear goals and objectives by identifying what infrastructure is required. For example, first-class community facilities, school provision, green infrastructure and sustainable travel opportunities.

“A number of suggestions have already helped shaped the WHPP and I’d like to thank those local residents groups and parish councils for their valuable feedback.”

‘Disappointing and vague’: Harrogate council’s plan to tackle climate change criticised

Three Harrogate district green groups have criticised Harrogate Borough Council‘s revised plan to cut carbon emissions in the district, calling it “disappointing” and “vague”.

The council has launched a public consultation on its draft Carbon Reduction Strategy, which will replace the original document that was first published in 2019.

HBC has a goal of 2038 when the Harrogate district will have a net zero-carbon economy. This means the district would put no more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than what it takes out.

As a major landowner and employer in the district, the council says it will be a leader in reducing emissions.

The draft document focuses on eight ‘strategic themes’ including retrofitting council housing in the district, encouraging the take up of electric vehicles and planting trees.

However, according to Zero Carbon Harrogate, Harrogate District Cycle Action and Harrogate & District Green Party, the plan does not go far enough, is light on details and has no clear targets.

ZCH said it had “major concerns” about the document.

It said:

‘We do not consider the current draft statregy to be stringent enough to deliver HBC’s target of making their own operations net zero carbon by 2038, and we have some major concerns about key elements and details that are missing from the strategy. We are concerned that there is a lack of recognition of the scale of change required to reach net zero and consequently a lack of ambition. The strategy is based on the premiss that HBC can achieve the objectives by undertaking actions using a business-as-usual model rather than by setting out Page | 2 the actions needed to reach net zero carbon and showing how these could be achieved over the remaining 17-year timescale.

“We are concerned that there are neither quantifiable actions, nor measurable success criteria included. No targets are set for either HBC or the public to gauge whether the objectives laid out in this strategy are being met.”

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Harrogate and District Green Party chair Andy Rickard accused the council of not taking the climate emergency seriously.

He said:

“The council’s draft Carbon Reduction Strategy is its third attempt at responding to the climate emergency and only emphasises that the council does not understand the meaning of the word ‘emergency’ because it has taken four years to come only this far after the first draft was prepared.”

“Planning permission for housing is still being given which approve gas heating. This only adds ‘petrol to the fire’, and a new grand leisure centre project for Knaresborough, which may not be completed for several years, still envisages gas as a main source of heat. These two examples from many recent HBC decisions, exemplify our concern that the word ’emergency’ is not being taken seriously.”

Harrogate District Cycle Action also criticised the document, saying it has “no ambition or rigour”.

“Unfortunately, the strategy gives no evidence that the potential carbon savings of any of the projects mentioned, gives no timescales and no recognition of what projects would have maximum impact and should therefore be prioritised. In addition, there are no specific actions in the document, just vague non-specific actions. Thus, the strategy appears to have no ambition or rigour.”

Have your say

Conservative councillor Phil Ireland, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for carbon reduction and sustainability, said:

“Climate change and the impact we’re all having on the planet, is at the forefront of people minds and rightly so.

“Our draft carbon reduction strategy has a number of aims and objectives but this can only be achieved by working together.

“I’d urge everyone to share their views on our draft carbon reduction strategy so that we can help deliver net-zero carbon emission by 2038.”

You can share your views on the strategy on the council’s website. The consultation closes on January 2.

10,000 Harrogate district children took part in Walk to School Day

Over 10,000 children across the Harrogate District did not travel to school by car on Friday for the second-ever Harrogate District Walk to School Day.

Instead of their usual drive to school, pupils were encouraged to walk, cycle, scoot or take public transport.

Zero Carbon Harrogate, the charity that coordinated the day, said 44 primary and secondary schools signed up to take their stand against the climate emergency.

This is a 42% increase in uptake since the first Walk to School Day in June this year.

Birstwith Church of England Primary School was the district’s ‘Zero Hero’ primary school winners with 91% of children taking part.

Harrogate High School won the secondary school prize, with 85% participation.

Find the full results table here: https://www.zerocarbonharrogate.org.uk/school-leaderboard.

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Jill Collins, headteacher of St. Robert’s Catholic Primary School said:

“The children and families in school are good walkers anyway, but when it comes to Walk to School Day they always make an extra effort walking, scooting, biking, even jogging in and the dog sometimes comes too.

“The children are so enthusiastic about helping the environment and know that we can all make a difference, even by taking simple steps such as walking to school.”

Fiona Jones, events manager for Zero Carbon Harrogate, added:

“This is the first Walk to School event exclusively for our district’s community and it has had a huge impact from being a co-ordinated effort – streets were noticeably quieter during the school run on Friday. The enthusiasm and positivity from schools, especially the children, has been fantastic.

“As regular half-termly events, these are not just about a single day in time, but about building positive transport habits that become a daily occurrence. These are the significant changes that will really make a difference.”

 

Harrogate motorists encouraged to ditch car on Fridays

Motorists in the Harrogate district are being encouraged to ditch their car for one day a week and instead walk, cycle or take public transport to work.

It’s for a new weekly initiative called ‘Car Free Fridays’ that has been launched by local green charity Zero Carbon Harrogate. 

It will take place every Friday beginning October 8 and ZCH hopes it will encourage some new greener habits. Transport is the largest source of emissions in the Harrogate District, making up 49% of the total figure.

Jemima Parker, chair of Zero-Carbon Harrogate said:

“It’s a good way of encouraging people to have one day a week where they leave their car at home. It encourages good habits”.

“Reducing cars on our roads also has the added benefit of improving air quality and reducing traffic congestion, and active travel such as cycling and walking is great for our health and mental wellbeing. Good for us, and good for the planet.”

Car Free Fridays is being backed by Harrogate Borough Council and Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate.

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Walk to School Day

Car-Free Fridays will also coincide with the district’s second Walk to School Day on October 8.

More than 7,000 pupils from 31 schools across the Harrogate district ditched their usual method of transport to take part in the first ZCH event in June.

North Stainley Church of England School won the ‘Zero Hero Primary‘ award, with 94% of its pupils taking part.

County council publishes new plan to cut emissions

North Yorkshire County Council’s three-year plan to help the organisation become net carbon neutral by 2030 includes adding more solar panels to its buildings, cutting down on staff travel and reducing waste.

Senior councillors on the Conservative-led authority are expected to rubber-stamp a draft carbon reduction plan tomorrow that lays out how it plans to reduce emissions across its offices, libraries and care homes.

However, it has been criticised by local environmental group Zero Carbon Harrogate who says the measures don’t go far enough.

The council says it’s aiming for net carbon neutral by 2030, which means it won’t reduce carbon dioxide emissions entirely but will offset the remainder of any emissions through carbon sequestration programmes and tree planting. 

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The report says the authority currently spends £1.8m a year on energy bills but this figure does not include schools.

It also highlights a recent project to replace its 50,400 street lights with more environmentally friendly LED bulbs.

The report suggests that covid has forced the council’s hand in reducing emissions as around 40% of the estimated reduction is due to changes in working practices, such as working from home.

Zero Carbon Harrogate said the report contains many “appropriate and prudent” initiatives but questioned how they will be monitored and delivered.

It also said NYCC could go further than what it proposes in the report to tackle transport emissions:

“The plan, almost exclusively, discusses decarbonising the NYCC’s own estate, with no mention of the significant decarbonisation impact that the NYCC can leverage as a policy maker.

“This is a major omission from the action plan, as NYCC is the policy gatekeeper for many infrastructure changes that can unlock decarbonisation across the county, particularly for transport.”

Thirty-one Harrogate schools take part in ‘walk to school day’

Pupils from 31 schools across the Harrogate district ditched their usual method of transport to take part in the ‘walk to school day’ event last Friday.

More than 7,000 pupils in total took part in the Zero Carbon Harrogate (ZCH) initiative, which was aimed at reducing carbon emissions across the district.

Parents and children who travel long distances to school were encouraged to ‘park and stride’ by walking the last mile of their journey or taking public transport instead.

North Stainley Church of England School won the ‘Zero Hero Primary‘ award, with 94% of its pupils taking part.

The event also had the endorsement of Harrogate Borough Council and local MP Andrew Jones, who went to two schools to show his support.

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Fiona Jones, ZCH’s event manager, said;

“This is such an important event for our community. Often children do not feel they have a voice when it comes to climate change, but a Walk to School Day is something that empowers children to cut their family’s carbon emissions through their own actions.”

Coppice Valley pupils after their walk to school.

Pupils themselves also spoke to ZCH about their transport habits. Rosie, aged 10, said:

“I normally walk because I think it’s really important not to take unnecessary car journeys, because pollution comes from the exhaust pipes – it pollutes the planet, but it’s also bad for people’s lungs, especially young children’s lungs.”

And Ben, a Year 10 pupil, said:

“I try to cycle or walk to places as much as possible to try and cut down my carbon emissions. It helps you get fitter as well.”

The event was such a success that it will be continued half-termly, with the next due to take place on October 8.

Zero Carbon Harrogate launches walk to school day

Local environmental group Zero Carbon Harrogate is encouraging children in the Harrogate district to walk to school on Friday June 18.

Road transport is the largest contributor to carbon emissions in the district, and the group hopes the day will help improve the environment whilst boosting children’s physical and mental health.

Children that use public transport or car for part of the journey can ‘park and stride’ the last mile of their trip to school.

ZCH said it will be a regular event taking place once every half term:

“We need to build better transport habits within our community and help combat the effects of climate change and protect our planet! That is why we are launching this regular, half-termly event.”

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ZCH wants to add some healthy competition to the day and will be logging the miles walked, or cycled, and carbon saved by schools across our district and putting them on a leaderboard.

​For more information and an event pack contact schools.zch@gmail.com

Harrogate cycle groups back one-lane Station Parade plan

Cycling and climate change groups have backed measures to reduce traffic on Station Parade to one lane and fully pedestrianise James Street in Harrogate.

Harrogate and District Cycle Action (HDCA) and Zero Carbon Harrogate issued their comments as part of the consultation on the town’s £7.9 million Station Gateway proposals, which ends today.

Business organisations, including Independent Harrogate and Harrogate Business Improvement District, have expressed concern at some of the plans and rejected the one-lane option.

But both HDCA and Zero Carbon Harrogate support creating a single lane for traffic on Station Parade, which also includes cycle lanes.

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HDCA said in its response to the plans:

“We are in favour of the one-lane option, which reduces Station Parade to one lane. Through traffic is routed along Cheltenham Mount, Bower Road, East Parade, and over Station Bridge back to Station Parade.

“The two-lane option does much less to achieve the objective of creating a more welcoming environment for people arriving at the station, and the cycle provision on Station Parade has a missing link in that version.”

A proposal to pedestrianise James Street in Harrogate, which is being consulted on as part of the Station Gateway plans.

A proposal to pedestrianise James Street in Harrogate is being consulted on as part of the Station Gateway plans.

The two groups also support the pedestrianisation of James Street to improve cycling and walking in the town centre.

‘Safer and more pleasant’

Zero Carbon Harrogate said pedestrianisation, combined with a single lane of traffic on Station Parade, would reduce town centre traffic. It said:

“Sustainable travel will become safer, more convenient and more pleasant, whilst travel by private car will become a little less convenient.

“We anticipate that the latter point will generate some opposition but believe that both sides of the equation must be addressed in order to achieve traffic reduction.”

The proposal for James Street has also been backed by Paul Haslam, a Conservative who represents Harrogate Old Bilton on Harrogate Borough Council.

Cllr Haslam, who has worked as a retail director and lecturer for the last 24 years, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it would be “the best thing that could ever happen to it”.

He said:

“I very much welcome the pedestrianisation of James Street although I am understanding of the concerns and misgivings from some businesses.

“The decline of high-street retail has become more and more true for Harrogate, and it has now been accelerated by covid, which has ultimately been the kiss of death for some businesses.

“One of the things we have got to stop this hollowing out of the town is the town centre plan. Within that we have the Gateway project, but also the conference centre refurbishment and more regular trains running from places like London to bring more people in.

“These are all part of a bigger picture and I believe the pedestrianisation of James Street will absolutely fit in and be perfect for the gateway project.”

Business concerns remain

The government’s Transforming Cities Fund, which aims to encourage sustainable transport, is funding the gateway scheme.

A partnership between North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority is delivering the initiative.

Businesses remain concerned that any measures to reduce traffic could harm trade.

Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association and a former Harrogate resident, said the measures included in the project would have a “negative impact” on its members’ businesses.

Sandra Doherty, chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, said a “well thought out plan” was needed for the town centre, which takes into the account the views of businesses, local people and visitors from further afield.